Cultural identity is a slippery and elusive concept. When applied to the collective self-consciousness among peoples or nations, it becomes all the more difficult to define or grasp. In recent decades scholars have focused on the "other"the alien, the unfamiliar, the different, perceived or conceived as the oppositeto highlight the virtues and advantages of the self. While this influential idea continues to hold sway, the time has come for a more nuanced and complex understanding of how the various societies of the ancient Mediterranean shaped their sense of identity.

The twenty-four essays in this volume examine the subject from a variety of angles. They encompass a broad range of culturesGreek, Persian, Jewish, Phoenician, Egyptian, Roman, Gallic, and Germanand an impressive array of topics. The essays attest to a diversity of attitudes toward other peoples that underscore distinctiveness or discover connectiveness or sometimes both. They show, above all, that the twists and turns that accompanied the development of a collective consciousness found no smooth path.

Erich S. Gruen is the Gladys Rehard Wood Professor Emeritus of History and Classics at the University of California, Berkeley.